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Rump Steak Pie

A savory pie filled with rump steak, optional kidneys and mushrooms, topped with a suet pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rump Steak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Layer the steak in a pie dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Skin and split the kidneys, cut into four slices each, and place on the steak.

  4. Add mushrooms if desired.

  5. Layer more steak on top and fill the dish with stock or water.

  6. Boil the minced onion in the stock or water for added flavor.

  7. Remove all fat from the steak to avoid greasiness.

Make the crust and bake

  1. Cover the pie with suet pastry and bake until the gravy boils and the crust is firm.

  2. To make the crust, mix suet with flour, then add water to form a paste.

  3. Roll out the paste thinly and layer it on the edge of the dish.

  4. For a family pie, substitute beef for kidneys and add raw potato slices.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long bake in the pie.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that makes the pastry tender and flaky.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the suet pastry crust once mixed with water.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the stock-based gravy.
Sheep's kidneys
Adds a rich, deep meaty flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Remove all fat from the steak. Excess fat from the meat can melt into the gravy and make the pie greasy, so trimming it before baking keeps the filling lighter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mushroom, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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